Snow sports: Crowley’s Sunday morning preaching will continue this season

Thursday

Nov 29, 2012 at 6:00 AM

The reverend, along with his irreverent sidekick, is back.

David Crowley, the middle brother of the ruling sibling triumvirate of Wachusett Mountain Ski Area in Princeton, forged a new identity for himself last year as the minister of a new church: skiing.

The “Rev. Crowley’s” pulpit was a Sunday morning radio show broadcast live on Worcester’s WCRN-AM 830 from the normally bustling Wachusett base lodge, which, during last season’s long barren stretches resembled more a deserted airline terminal.

The show was originally meant to be about skiing and snowboarding. But with the usually benign influence of longtime Crowley sidekick Scott Mellecker of Princeton, an amateur standup comedian, it became a comedy routine about everything.

And Crowley and Mellecker often went off-script, so much so that they would even joke about offending federal decency standards.

“During the first week, that’s when the show started going downhill,” Crowley said, pun probably intended.

This fall, it looked like the show wouldn’t be around for a sophomore year after “negotiations” with WCRN broke down.

Crowley informed me earlier this week, though, that the two sides had reached a tense accord. The zaniness would return from 8 to 9 a.m. Sundays during ski season after all.

A disclosure here is in order. I was a guest few times, in studio and calling in from Route 2 in Greenfield, Waterville Valley, and Vail, Colo. I tried to get my own quips in until Mellecker instructed me to leave the jokes to him. Good advice.

“We’re psyched to be back,” Crowley said. “It’s important to have the local voice.”

Crowley noted that he learned a lot last year. For example, he and Mellecker won’t be interviewing any St. Bernard snow rescue dogs, as they did last year, this time around.

“We learned that sight gags don’t work on radio,” he said.

As for Mellecker, he told me that in re-conceptualizing the program — named “Sundays from the Mountaintop” even though it broadcast from the base — “the original idea was this year we were going to move the show to satellite radio, but I am afraid of heights.”

“We are hoping to add something new to the ski show this year … snow,” Mellecker added. “The beauty of a radio show is that we get several chances to succeed. It’s not like skydiving.”

Crowley wryly noted that performing live can sometimes get a bit dicey, though it is essential to achieve that “skier on the street” feel in what he hopes will be a more crowded lodge this season.

“One woman who was walking by and heard us was so offended because she thought it was a religious show,” he said.

Okemo almost always has the most reliable early-season skiing in the East, and it’s considerably closer to Central Massachusetts than the more highly touted early openers: Killington and Sunday River.

And the Ludlow, Vt., resort did not disappoint during a visit on the Monday after Thanksgiving.

Three full trails were open from the summit: Timberline, a straight, nicely pitched advanced intermediate shot; the black diamond Upper and Lower World Cup; and Sapphire, a blue cruiser that snakes to the left of the workhorse Northstar Express Quad lift.

In all, 81 ski-able acres were open (including 14 named runs) when we were there. By comparison, Wachusett’s entire terrain comprises about 100 acres.

This is not a knock on Wachusett, an estimable local mountain with plenty of variety, but rather to point out that what Okemo had open was pretty impressive at this stage.

By the way, check in often on Okemo’s website, as well as those of other ski areas, to see what new stuff is available. For example, Okemo on Wednesday opened its first top-to-bottom beginners’ run of the season, Sunburst, bringing the ski area to 20 runs available for skiing and riding as of midweek.

In addition to the delight of top-to-bottom skiing on Nov. 26, the snow was about as good as it could get in a fall that has seen little natural snow.

Often, November and early December skiing packs skiers and riders into thin ribbons of chewed up snow, with brown grass on either side of the man-made snow corridors.

However, a nearly constant succession of sub-freezing nights this month has enabled Okemo’s adept snowmakers to lay down full side-to-side coverage. Meanwhile, groomers have combed and rolled the snowpack into a fine, smooth bed punctuated only by a few chunky areas that mostly soften up in the sun.

After lunch, when the sun really came out and most of the few dozen other skiers and riders had departed, the skiing was nothing less than fine

My skiing partner and I made about a dozen top-to-bottom runs, including a couple of thigh-burning nonstoppers. Two days later, I can still feel the four hours of skiing we did in my quads and calves.

We relaxed afterward in Ludlow’s funky Pot Belly bar and reflected on our November skiing excursion.

“It was a good day,” my Worcester friend said. “On the trails, you could ski without dodging trees, rocks and stumps like you often do early in the season. In the afternoon, we skied through long stretches reminiscent of midwinter snow.”